Mrs. Hanataka frowned and peered
one more time through the window at the waiting group of family. "I object,"
she informed her daughter. "I absolutely object."

Shouri crossed her arms over her
chest. "I told you Jura wouldn't be here to pick us
up, didn't I? Who asked you to insist against me?"

"I'm your mother, Shouri."

"Yes, mom. I know. I've known for
the last fifteen years of my life. But a bet's a bet."

"You planned this," her mother accused
relentlessly as she fished out her fat purse. "You must've called Jura sometime during the journey and told her not to come."

Shouri held out a hand. "Ten
thousand," she insisted. "Down to the very last yen."

"Jura always comes." Mrs. Hanataka went on. "She's always here waiting at the
station whenever we return from a trip or a visit."

"Always expect the unexpected." Shouri
said lightly, though she was surprised too. Something must've happened, she
assured herself. Probably Jura got stuck in the
bathroom again or dropped into a worker's hole somewhere or accidentally got
distracted by a passing ice cream truck.

Her mother frowned again. "How do I know
what to expect if I don't know what's expected and unexpected? What is expected
and unexpected, anyway? Who can say exactly what human beings expect and don't
expect?"

Mrs. Hanataka laughed delightedly,
having won the mouth-match. She took out a ten thousand yen note and slipped it
in Shouri's hand. "Just joking, Shouri,"
she chuckled. "Just joking and giving you some education."

Shouri smiled wryly. "Right."

She hadn't even stepped out of the train when her cousin, Jo,
lunged at her. "Welcome back! Welcome back! Welcome back to Kanagawa!" Her aunt
and uncle watched on in amusement.

Shouri faked a surprised look
amidst the confetti Jo was throwing into her eyes and nostrils. "Kanagawa? Mom, we got off at the wrong station."

Shouri flexed her knee. "It's
movable," she forced a smile. "At least I can still kick your daughters when
they deserve a powerful one!"

Mrs. Hanataka looked at Jo. "I
thought you were already working, Jo," she commented. "How come you still dress
in skirts with Doraemon on it?" She pointed at the
huge blue-and-white face of the cartoon character.

Jo flushed and pretended she missed the question. "You all
must be famished!" she said extravagantly. "After the strenuous journey from
across the country, and arriving in the laps of your beloved family members,
you must be excited to adjourn back to our home and rest in the kingly bed
sheets and pillows made for royalty!"

Shouri looked at her mother. "This
is the number one reason why I will never become a poet," she said seriously.
"It affects the way you talk."

"I??" Jo fluttered her eyelashes. "I? Poet?
The maiden doth knowest how
to flatter." She bent down and kissed her cousin on the cheek before pulling
her into a surprise bear hug.

Shouri looked pained. "Help."

Standing for the tenth minute and knocking for the fifteenth
time, Shouri glared at the wooden door in front of
her. "What are you doing in there, Jura??" she
yelled. "I've returned, and you haven't even shown your face to me yet. What
happened? Did you grow a dozen pimples overnight?"

"No."

"You mean there's more than a dozen??"

The was a sound of a pillow hitting
the door and Jo came running up the stairs, dressed for outdoors. "Leave her
alone, Shouri," she advised, talking normally now.
"She's depressed."

Shouri raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Jo shrugged her shoulders. "She didn't exactly write an essay
explaining the causes. She's been locking herself in her room and muttering
names and words, something like: Heartbreak, life, over, Kiyota,
no hope, break up, Pooch, sleep together." Jo winked.
"If it makes sense to you, then you should go into those word games on TV."

Shouri snorted. "Of course it makes
sense," she said dismissively. "I worked it out from the first word you
mentioned."

"Prithee, do tell me."

"Your darling sister is suffering from a disastrous
heartbreak, and is convinced that her life is over. The person who did this to
her is called Kiyota, and she believes there is no
hope left after their break-up because he has a new girl named Pooch and they
have slept together."

"Ah." Jo lowered her
head sympathetically and muttered a few made-up prayers. "She's been mooning
over that Kiyota since January. Come, let us, Shouri, pray for the sensibility
of my darling sister. May she come out of that room no worse than when she went
in."

Shouri nodded. "Amen."

The door whizzed open and Jura
poked her angry head out. "Stop it, you two!" she screamed. "It's not funny!"
She burst crying.

Jo quickly went back for the stairs. "I sense a maiden in
distress," she said as she went down. "And at the same time, I sense a distant
smell of apple pies wafting from the kitchen. Therefore, I bestow the honour of
cheering my sister up to the ever reliable Shouri."

Shouri rolled her eyes and hugged Jura comfortingly. "Well now, a girl goes off for two
months and comes back, only to find all this. Honestly, Jura,
haven't I always told you that guys are the bane of the society?" She looked
down at her cousin and then released a whistle. "Oh boy, he did hurt you a lot,
didn't he?"

Jura sniffed and shook her head.

"Don't be modest," Shouri
reprimanded her. "Of course he hurt you a lot. And of course, we're not going
to let him get away with that, are we? Nobody hurts a Hanataka
and gets away with it!"

Jura snorted. "I'm a Wanaku."

"Yeah, well, your mom's Hanataka,
so that makes you half-Hanataka." Shouri
took a deep breath. "Nobody hurts a Hanataka and a
half-Hanataka and gets away with it!" she declared.
"Tell me, what did he do to you?"

Shouri pushed Jura
back into her room and firmly shut the door close. What did the guy do to her cousin?? Jura was far from the stupid idiot that she was normally
was. Now, she was even stupider and more idiotic.

"It must be stopped."
She told Jura through the keyhole. "Don't
worry, Jura. I understand perfectly what he did to
you, and I'll make sure you get the revenge you deserve. As a matter of fact,
right tomorrow morning, as soon as I get my feet back to Kainan
High, the first thing I'll do is seek him out and bash him for you."

" – amazing, super, wonderful –"

"Hey, are you listening?"

" – unbelievable, ace, lady-killer
–"

Shouri stomped back to the living
room. "She didn't even ask about my injury or treatment."

"How was your treatment?" the principal of Kainandai High asked curiously.

Shouri shrugged. "Painful. They
made me walk at least five kilometres everyday." She took the admittance paper
he gave her. "All in all, I'm glad to be back. I've already missed two months
of school. God knows how I'll catch up."

"Terrible," the principal agreed. "It's a shame the accident
happened right after the first day of school."

Shouri gave a small smile. "Um,
well, yeah."

"Can you still
perform?"

The smile
disappeared. "I – I don't know. I mean, well…" she took a deep breath. "No. No,
I can't. Not anymore." No matter how many times she said it, it still poked a
hole inside her. Shouri sighed.

The principal
looked at her quietly with a sad and sympathetic little face.

She hastily
picked her bag up. "I'll go now."

He nodded, turning back to the load of papers on his desk.
"Class starts in twenty minutes. Don't be late."

"Hmm," she walked down the corridor in pretence of heading
for her class, but then turned around another corridor and rushed for the gym.
She'd heard the basketball team took at least half-an-hour for practice before
school began every day. And today, she was going to cut Nobunama
Kiyota's session short.

When she arrived, another four groups of students (mostly
girls) were already there, watching adoringly. Surprised and a little amused, Shouri decided to get right down to business. She
approached a fellow Year 1 girl. "Hello. Can you tell me which one's Nobunama Kiyota?"

"Nobunaga." The girl said
primly.

"Oh. Sorry. Nobunaga."

The girl narrowed her eyes. "Do I know you?"

Shouri wondered what that had to do
with Kiyota. "I don't know. You don't seem to, so I
guess not." She waved a hand. "So, which one is he?"

"I think I've seen you before." The girl mused, scratching
her chin thoughtfully. "Are you in Class 3?" her eyes narrowed. "Those eyes …
you're not Shouri Hanataka,
are you?? You can't be. I thought she was dead."

Shouri raised an eyebrow. "Uh, no. I'm not dead yet."

"I knew it," the girl self-congratulated. "I knew it was you.
It's those eyes, see. People were saying how it was that Shouri
Hanataka had such huge eyes that it's the only thing
you see on her face."

Shouri didn't know how to react, so
she simply stared. "Oh. Okay." She scowled then. "Actually, I also have a nose
and a mouth on my face. But that's besides the point here. Can you please point
out Kiyota to me?"

There was sudden loud bang at the far end of the court,
cutting Shouri off curtly. A boy around her age was
triumphantly hanging on to the red hoop, in a way that reminded her of monkeys monkeying around in the zoo. Apparently, he'd just made a
successful shot and wanted the whole world to know.

"Ah!" the girl beside Shouri gasped
tragically. "I missed it!"

Shouri studied the boy. Long, messy hair, well-shaped nose, strong cheekbones and a wide,
generous mouth. The words Jura had chanted the
day before ran through her head one more time. What was it that she said? Gorgeous, talented, brave, popular, to-die-for, athletic… etc.
Surprised at the accurateness of her cousin's judging, she rocked back on her
heel. "That's him," she answered her own question, almost admiringly.

The girl she was speaking to had already rushed to the others
to query about the shot – darn, what do they call it? Slam punk? Slam bunk?

Snapping herself back to reality, and reminding herself of
the well thought-up speech she'd painfully dictated, she strode boldly over to
the boy Kiyota who was struggling with the cap of his
bottle and firmly placed herself in front of him.

He looked up in surprise, which then turned into an easy
smile. "Hi, sweetheart. Can I help you?"

A lady-killer, all right. Poor Jura.
"Actually," she began sweetly, matching the smile on his face. "I just came here
to tell you that –"

"Yeah, I know the dunk there was awesome." He winked. "That's
not the first time I did that, darling, and you can be sure that's not the last
time I'll do it either."

The smile on Shouri's face cracked
slightly. "No, actually –"

"Oh, don't worry. You don't have to tell me how well I play
basketball." He thought about it. "Actually, why don't you tell me how well I
play basketball? It won't hurt to get a new praise."

Shouri's smile had completely
vanished. "I came here to tell you that you're a PIG." She screamed the last
word, causing Kiyota to stare at her with dotted
eyes. (' _') "How DARE you toy around with my cousin, Jura!"

He blinked. "Jura?"

"Oh, that's just great. You've even forgotten all about her!
What kind of a barbarian are you? I mean, how could you even think of hurting Jura's feelings? Are you too busy caring for yourself that
you can't even spare some for other people??" She pointed a finger in his face.
"And who with a right mind would go out with someone named Pooch?"

"Pooch?"

"That's right. Pooch.
I'm glad you can still hear. How DARE you sleep with her and destroy my cousin
into pieces until she was practically incapable of remembering me?? And you're
not even fully sixteen! You should be arrested for underage sex or
something!""

"Huh??"

Shouri decided he was a bigheaded,
small-brained idiot worthy of being kicked down the garbage chute. "Don't you
ever do what you did to my cousin ever again to anyone else.
Next time, think about how you'll feel if someone two-timed you behind your
back." With a seething glare, she retreated and stomped away, disappointed at
the lame fight. She'd expected him to defend himself with lies so she could
easily and successfully tear those lies down and expose the real him, but he'd
just gaped at her and repeated snatches of words.

Idiot. What a terrible debater he'd
make.

Kiyota was still frozen with the
bottle about to enter his mouth. Everybody in the gym was staring at him, and
then at the girl, and then back at him with puzzled looks. The only thing he
could comprehend right now was the fact that the stranger had just managed to
humiliate him beyond repair in less than two minutes.

Jin came up to him, trying to hide a smile. (-_-) "Who's
that?"

"I don't know," Kiyota muttered
dazedly.

"Who's Jura?"

"No idea."

"And who's Pooch?"

Kiyota looked
at Jin. "My dog."

Sorry
– that was really long, wasn't it? Hope it didn't bore the eyes out of your
sockets! Ha ha!

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